Just don't select any text when replying. Or are you asking something else? It's not clear from your question. Can you add some more details?
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Al E.Nov 26 '12 at 13:46

Yes, I'd like to have GMail quote all text even when I have text selected - otherwise I have to remember to unselect it. Other mail clients provide this option, and I could have sworn I found how to enable it in Gmail a while ago.
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tog22Nov 26 '12 at 15:17

2

Ah. The answer then is "you can't". Either unselect the text or select all the text.
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Al E.Nov 26 '12 at 15:34

2 Answers
2

Just to provide some background: Right now, it doesn't seem like you can turn this feature off.

There used to be a labs feature to turn "quote selected text" on. Very recently (mid-November '12) they turned it on by default, without providing a way to disable. I haven't been able to find any official mention of it, only comments from others who have noticed the change and miss the old way.